Global Economy
Asia's coal demand: You ain't seen nothing yet
Sam Roggeveen yesterday showed us how much demand for coal has risen in Asia during this century. Now consider what the future will hold.
A recent joint publication from the…
Lowy Institute Papers
Beyond the boom
In this Lowy Institute Paper, Dr John Edwards, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, challenges the pessimism about the Australian economy. The mining boom is far from over –…
China's banking sector: More equity, less debt
So China's economy will soon overtake the US in PPP terms.
Some commentators believe market-rate calculation is more meaningful than PPP, and forecast that on this basis China…
Spain down, but will lead Europe again
Spain is going through a rough spot. Two kings are down and its permanent aches — restless regions, high unemployment, illegal immigration from Africa — persist. And yet Spain,…
Cameron taking the Great out of Britain?
Strong stuff from Gideon Rachman:
Will David Cameron go down as the prime minister who turned Great Britain into Little England? If things go wrong for him, he could end up…
Argentina and the problem of sovereign debt restructuring
The long running Argentine debt-default saga has taken another step forward (or backwards, depending on your viewpoint). The US Supreme Court has ruled definitively against…
Climate change: Asia leads, but not in a good way
Vox has some remarkable — and depressing — charts on why the world is failing on climate change, all derived from BP's latest Statistical Review of World Energy. Half of the world…
Climate change: Australia takes it seriously, and so should Abbott
Australian public opinion on global warming since 2006. (Screen capture from the Lowy Institute poll interactive.)
One of the most striking findings from the 2014 Lowy Institute…
Does inequality make a country less secure?
In the first post in this series I explored several implications of rising inequality with respect to military capacity and international security. In this post, I will explore…
Reports
G20: dealing with too-big-to-fail banks, corporate tax avoidance, and development
This issue of the G20 Monitor addresses the ‘too big to fail’ dilemma of major financial institutions, combating tax evasion and avoidance through ‘base erosion and profit…